HOUSTON - A Houston man has been ordered to prison
following hisconvictions of theft of
government money and aggravated identity theft,announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick along with Special Agent in
Charge D. Richard Goss of IRS - Criminal Investigation (CI).

Eric W. King, 49, of Houston, and Theresa K. Goffney, 46,
of Rosharon, pleaded guilty May 29 and July 9, 2018, respectively. The court
found the defendants submitted a total of 179 fraudulent tax returns requesting
refunds in the amount of $888,261.

Today, U.S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas imposed a
65-month total sentence for King - 41 months for the conspiracy and a
consecutive 24 months for the identity theft. He was further ordered to serve
three years of supervised release following his sentence and must pay $29,264
in restitution.

Co-defendant Goffney will be sentenced Friday, March 15.

The defendants admitted they unlawfully acquired the
personal identifying information (PII) of others such as name, date of birth,
Social Security number and address. They then used the unlawfully acquired PII
to file fraudulent tax returns in the victims' names.

The fraudulent tax returns requested the IRS refund to be
directed to bank accounts the conspirators opened and controlled, checks mailed
to addresses conspirators controlled or be loaded onto prepaid debit cards they
had purchased.

King was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily
surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near
future.